Gould, Joseph: Ministry From The N.T. 039 ~ John 16;7-15

Turn with me in your Bible to John's Gospel, chapter sixteen. I whispered to Bobby when I was picking up the microphone that I was going to finish early tonight, and I thought he was going to pass out. I don't think he believed me. And Crystal didn't believe me either. So I've changed my mind. John's Gospel, chapter 16 and verse seven through the end of verse fifteen. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it is expedient for you that I go away. For if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you. But if I depart, I will send him unto you. And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. Of sin because they believe not on me. Of righteousness because I go to my Father and ye see me no more. Of judgment because the prince of this world is just. I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. How be it when he, the Spirit of truth, has come, he will guide you into all truth. For he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak, and he will show you things to come. He shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine and show it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine. Therefore said I that he shall take of mine and show it unto you. Let's bow our hearts in a moment's prayer. Let's pray together. Our Father, we bow our hearts in recognition that we are in your presence. And in your word, you have promised that where two or three are gathered together in your name, there you are in the midst of them. And Father, we acknowledge your presence with us this evening as we come to hear your word, and we come to a baptismal service. We pray, our Father, that your hand of blessing would be upon us. We pray for the two who will be baptized in obedience to your word, that Father, you would bless them immensely tonight, that they may know that they walk in obedience to their Lord and Savior. Father, we pray for all who are gathered that your word of truth may be broken to our hearts. If there are any here who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ, that even tonight they may come to know him. And Father, for we who are line, that you would teach us day by day to rejoice in him, in all the wonders of his love. Bless us now, we pray, in Jesus' name. Amen. If I had been given permission tonight to choose the opening hymn, I would have chosen the hymn that we sang together. When peace like a river attendeth my way, waters like sea billows roll, whatever my lot thou hast taught me to say, it is well, it is well with my soul. I made a statement this morning, I want to repeat it to you this evening, that there are only two types of people in the world. There are those who have received Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, and there are those who are yet rejecting Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. There are no other divisions that have any real meaning but those. And that's why tonight it's a blessing to be able to sing in the presence of God and to know the truth of the words, it is well with my soul. It is well with my soul. I want to speak to you tonight on the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer, but I want to emphasize at the beginning, if you turn back with me to John fourteen, I want to emphasize the words of verse seventeen. Even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him, but ye know him, for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you. I- I want you to notice the contrast that Jesus is making. It's absolutely in keeping with the statement that I made just a moment ago, that there are those who have never received the person of the Holy Spirit about whom Jesus spoke. And Jesus said the reason they can't receive him is they can't see him, and they don't know him. But he turns to the little group of disciples, and he says, but you know him, and he shall be with you, but listen to these words, and he shall be in you. I want to emphasize at the very outset of the meeting that one of the things that happens at salvation when a person comes to trust and to receive the Lord Jesus, is that the Holy Spirit of God comes to live in them. The Apostle Paul writes to the believers at Corinth, and he has to correct some behavioral problems. In First Corinthians chapter six in the last verses, he says this: What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own, for ye are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. Now he says, to those of you who are redeemed, it is incredible to think that you don't know that your body is the dwelling place, the temple of God the Holy Spirit. That he, the moment you were saved, the moment you became Christ, the moment you received him as Lord and Savior, that the Holy Spirit came to live within you. Now I've asked the question many times, can the Holy Spirit of God live within us and nobody be able to tell the difference? I don't believe that is possible, not for one moment. But Jesus, speaking in John sixteen and in John fourteen, he uses the words, he shall be in you. I was speaking to a young man this week who told me that he didn't believe in eternal security. Somebody walking past said to him, you shouldn't have said that to him. He'll be like a rabid dog. And I was. You know why? Because my Bible tells me that if I'm saved, the Holy Spirit lives within me, and for me to lose my salvation, he would have to move out. And Jesus says, he shall be in you, and the words are in the present continuous. It's never going to be changed. He is going to dwell in me until he takes me to be with him where he is. I, I, I want to say this to you. I looked at the young man, and I said to him, how do you know when the Holy Spirit leaves and when he comes back again? I, I don't know. I said, do you think it might be that he doesn't leave, and you just don't understand that? You think it's worthy of him leaving, but... See, my Bible says, I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. And I said to him, young man, I can't even pluck myself out of his hand. Why? Because he's the savior, and I'm the sinner that he saved. He shall be in you, making every believer the dwelling place, the temple of God the Holy Ghost. And I want to tell you that's true of every believer, no matter how old they are or how young they are, they are indwelt by the Spirit of God. But now I want to take you to the words that Jesus speaks in John sixteen, and he says of the Holy Spirit and his work in the believer, he shall glorify me. You know, as I was coming to the meeting this evening, I closed my eyes and said, Lord, be glorified in the meeting this evening. These two young people are obedient to you in baptism. Lord, be glorified in the meeting. You know, the only way Jesus is glorified in the meeting is when the Holy Spirit is there, and when the Holy Spirit of God is in control. But I want to talk to you a little this evening about how Jesus is glorified by the Holy Spirit. And the first way is this. Jesus is glorified by the Holy Spirit when a soul is saved. I want you to get this. We looked this morning at the fact that in the world, the Holy Spirit would convince men of sin. I got to tell you, there's not a lot of convincing and convicting of sin in the world today. This world doesn't acknowledge sin, doesn't acknowledge the God who tells us what sin is. But when a soul is saved, it begins with the work of convincing and convicting. I was under conviction for three months. It was the most miserable time of my life. I did everything I could to prove to myself that I didn't need Jesus Christ. I did everything I could to prove to myself that I could do without him. And the night I got saved, I fell down beside my bed, and I said, Lord, I've made a mess of my life. I want to receive you as my savior. I want you to make it right. I give it to you. Didn't have all the theology, you know. Didn't even understand that it was the Holy Spirit of God that had brought me to that place. But Jesus Christ was glorified in the salvation of my soul. You see, when God brings about conviction, it's real. And conviction leads to conversion. Being converted. I don't like you talking like that today, do they? Being changed in the direction you're going. Well, I was a sinner, I was on my road to hell, and Jesus saved me, and I was converted. I was turned around. And since that very moment, I'm on my way to heaven, and it's a different journey and a different direction altogether. The Apostle Paul writes to the Thessalonians in first Cha- Thessalonians Thessalonians chapter one, and he says, look, people have heard about you. They have heard how you turned to God from idols. That's being converted. That's a total turnaround, being turned to God from idols. And then he says this, to serve the living and true God and to wait for his son from heaven. You see, when God the Holy Spirit brings a sinner on to conviction, his purpose is not just to make them miserable, but to bring them to Christ. To bring them to the only one who can save them and make them new creatures in himself. And I got to say this to you, it's not the work of the preacher to see people saved. It's the work of God, the Holy Spirit. I remember sitting in a meeting and listening to a preacher saying, if we can see twenty souls saved this year, we'll bring twenty new offerings into the church. I thought, run that one by me again. If we can see twenty souls saved this year, twenty more people will bring money into the church. Maybe it was because the motives were wrong that we didn't see twenty souls saved that year. But it's not our job to save. It's not the preacher's job to save. Paul said, he says, Paul plants, Apollos waters, and God gives the increase. And I wouldn't have it any other way. I had a young man come to me one day, and he says, Mr. Gould, I got saved. I said, how did you get saved? He said, the preacher saved me. You won't be saved for long then, will you? No, the preacher showed him how Jesus could save him. And when a soul gets saved, Jesus said that when a soul gets saved, there's rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God in heaven, and it brings glory to the Lord Jesus Christ. Doesn't bring glory to the preacher. He's just blessed to be used of God in any way, for God to work out his purposes. Doesn't bring, doesn't bring glory to the, to, to, to the church either, you know, it just brings new life to the church. Let me ask you a question tonight. Are you saved? Do you know Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior? You know, that's what the two young people are going to be baptized or professing. They're not going into this water behind me thinking, well, once I've been in this water, I'll really be saved. No, the water's not going to make a difference. I had a friend called Hillis Fleming in Liverpool, England, and he was a Presbyterian minister, and he and I used to discuss baptism all the time, and and I would say to him, you're drier, but you're no higher. And he'd say, well, you're wetter, but you're no better. But then one night he said to me, Joe, he says, are you free next Thursday night? I says, why is that? He said, well, I want you to come to a meeting. In fact, I want you to take part in the meeting. And I said, well, what's happening? He said, well, we've just had a new baptistry put in our Presbyterian church, and myself and the elders and thirteen of our congregation are going to obey the Lord in baptism. My, what a blessing it was. What a meeting it was. Not because they got saved that night, but that that night they professed Jesus Christ as their Savior, and they obeyed him by going through the waters of baptism. You know, you're going to go into the water tonight, and you're going to come out wetter, but you're not going to be any better. But you're going to say to everybody that's here, I'm doing this because Jesus Christ is my Savior, and because he asked me to. And I got to tell you something, I love baptismal services because of the pure reality, reality of the professions of the young people and older people. I remember sitting in a home in Liverpool, England, and the lady was ninety four years old. She said to me, Mr. Gould, I've never been baptized. I didn't get saved until I was late and I was old in life, and I've always been crippled with arthritis, and do you think the Lord's going to be angry when I get to heaven because I've not been baptized? I said, let me ask you, Miss Dunne, if you could, would you go down into the waters of baptism? Oh, she said, I would go down every day. Why? Because even though she was physically unable to do it, her heart was saved, her soul was saved, her heart was right. She would just have been thrilled to obey the Lord. That's what they're going to do tonight. They're going to make a public testimony, a public statement that the Holy Spirit of God has brought them to the place where they're trusting in Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ alone for salvation. Are you saved tonight? Ah, you've no idea how we'd love you to be the next person to enter into the waters of baptism. Come to Christ. By the Holy Spirit, you trust Jesus Christ as your savior. But Jesus said, he shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine and shall show it unto you. You know what that means for the two young people tonight? It doesn't mean that when they're baptized tonight, they've done it, they've come to the end. It means that they're going to go down into the waters of baptism, and they're going to come out of the waters of baptism, and they're going to walk in newness of life. They're going to walk with Jesus Christ, their Savior, every day for the rest of their lives. And he, the Holy Spirit of God, who lives within them, dwells within them, resides within them, he's going to teach them what that means. He's going to teach them what that means. And I've never been to a baptismal service when I haven't sat in the meeting, and I'll do it again tonight, and look back to the night when I was baptized. Nineteen sixty six in Belfast, Northern Ireland. I was baptized. I hope the water's not as cold for you tonight as it was that night. I'll tell you what happened. Walked in, and those of us who were being baptized sat in the front row. You could see the baptistry right here, and the steam was rising from it. It was a November evening in Britain. It was freezing outside. And I saw the steam rising, and I thought, ha, at least the water is going to be warm. It was like ice. I talked to a man afterwards, I said, you've got two heaters in there, and the steam was rising. He said, that's because we'd only just put them in. That's because we'd only just put them, we forgot to put them in this morning. But I tell you, the cold water didn't dampen the spirits of those of us who were baptized. You see, when God saves you, he calls you to a life of learning and a life of obedience to Jesus Christ. Don't ever get to the place where you become obedient to preachers. Only when they tell you what the Word of God says. Don't ever become followers of man. The Holy Spirit will never lead you to follow man. He'll always lead you to follow Jesus Christ, and to follow Jesus Christ alone. And he'll never lead you to disobey God's written word. You know that? Let me commend not only to the two who are to be baptized tonight, let me commend to each one of you the word of God. God wants to speak to us every day. He doesn't only want to hear from us. He wants to speak to us through his inspired word. Oh, that we would learn day by day to take time to bow in the presence of God and say, Holy Spirit, teach me the truth of God's word. Show me Jesus Christ in all his loveliness. Turn over with me to Second Corinthians chapter three, and I am going to finish early. How early? We shall see. Two Corinthians chapter three and verse seventeen. Now the Lord is that Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. The Apostle Paul's telling the Corinthians the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. He says he takes you to the glass, he takes you to the words, he takes you to the mirror. He shows you what Christ is like, and then day by day he's working in you to make you to be like Christ. And that's a day by day process that the Holy Spirit performs. It's no good me getting up tomorrow morning and saying, I'm going to work harder at being like Jesus. Well, the only thing I need to do is get out of the way and let the Holy Spirit make me like Jesus. If I get in the way, the world is going to see me. But if the Holy Spirit of God controls me, the world is going to see Jesus Christ in me. You notice he says, even as by the Spirit of the Lord, we are changed into the same image. Let me go forward, I don't know how long, but one day we're going to go to see Jesus face to face. And you know what the Bible says is going to happen? Instantly, we're going to be changed to be like him. So it's a process through life of the Holy Spirit making us like Christ, and then when Jesus comes or we go to see him, the work is completed. God, who began a good work in us, completes it at the day of Jesus Christ. That's why the words of Romans six are so important. The Lord says, buried with him in baptism, raised to walk in newness of life. Newness of life. You're going to go down into the water. You're going to come up out of the water, and your testimony is this. I'm going to walk with Jesus Christ. I'm going to live for Jesus Christ. He's going to be my teacher. He's going to be my guide. I have the Holy Spirit of God living in me. Living in me. There's a little verse in Romans eight that says, if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. If you don't have the Holy Spirit of God living within you, you don't belong to Christ, because it's only to those who belong to Christ that the Holy Spirit is given. You know what would make this baptismal service even more wonderful than these two young people obeying the Lord? Someone in this meeting tonight was to come convinced of sin, convinced of righteousness, convinced of judgment, and was to come and trust the Lord Jesus Christ as personal savior. There would be joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner coming home. Young people, the Lord bless you. To each one of us, as we see them go through the waters of baptism, if we've been there, remember the promises we made. And if we haven't, ask ourselves why. Why do I not know him? Why have I not obeyed him? Let's bow in prayer. Our Father, we thank you for the privilege of being the dwelling place of God the Holy Spirit. We thank you for the privilege of knowing Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior. Father, as we come to see these two young people obey their Lord in baptism. We pray that you will bless them in such a way that their testimonies may be used to see others won for Christ. Father, we pray that they may not be ashamed to tell others that they belong to Jesus Christ, that they're his, and that it is indeed well with their souls for time and for eternity. Continue with us, we pray now, in Jesus' name. Amen.